A Christmas Thought

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” Every human heart has felt the chill of these words, both from personal experience and the experience of others. We don’t have to look very far in our world to see the brokenness that gives rise to these words.  The mother who holds her still-born child in her arms, the child who hides in the closet to avoid the rage of an abusive parent, the family caught in the grips of addiction and countless others know, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

            “It wasn’t supposed to be like this” is written across the walls of a home that has every materialistic advantage but lacks the warmth of love.  You can see it in the eyes of a man who suffers the indignity of filling out yet one more form as he tries to find a way to feed his family. With deafening silence it speaks in a family who is trying to gather for the first time after the death of a loved one. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”

            You can hear it in the wake of broken relationships. You can see it on the landscape of war-ravaged countries. It howls through the air on cold dark nights and swirls under bridges where homeless men and  women huddle for shelter. The words hang like an invisible sign over communities and businesses where basic human dignity and justice has been stripped away by the greed, selfishness and indifference of others. Where people are held in bondage, be it physical bondage or a prison of thought, the words rise in one mighty but all too often silent chorus, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”

             

God looked down on creation and saw the heartache, misery, and agony gripping people, people whom he created, loved and cherished. He heard their anguish and saw their inability to free themselves from the self-destructive cycles of physical and spiritual death. His own heart ached, and a mighty cry rose from his heart that thundered across the canopy of creation as every fiber of his being cried out, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!

God was not content to leave us alone in our pain. He could not bear the thought of our captivity to things that were not the way they were supposed to be.  And so, knowing we were incapable of extricating ourselves from that bondage, he reached out not only to comfort us in our sorrow, but to rescue us .

And so, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6, NIV84)

Joseph was told this child would save people from the destructive, disintegrating force that rips the very fabric of our world apart as it separates and distorts our relationships with each other and with God – for that is what sin does.  Joseph was told he, Jesus, would “save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

And so Jesus is born to repair the breach. He comes to restore the broken relationship between God and people as he offers forgiveness and mercy. The restoration of the wholeness of that relationship does not and cannot happen without impacting our relationships with each other toward wholeness. And that impact cannot help but lead us toward a life in a world where things are more like they way they were supposed to be. No wonder Jesus says,  “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5)

            As I think of the birth of Jesus at Christmas, I think of the brokenness of my life and of our world. I think of God who never intended for it to be this way, and who, in his great and overwhelming love for us all, came to save us from the disintegration of our sin and to make all things new. In as much as I am “in Christ,” I am part of the new thing God is doing. Christmas is not only the birth of Jesus. It is the birth of a people and a world that God is making new.

Blessed?

I’m meditating/studying my way through that section of scripture we call “the sermon on the mount.” (Matthew 5-7) These are teachings Jesus shared with his disciples, and overheard by the crowd, while he was sitting on a hillside. Since he was sitting on a mountainside, someone somewhere began calling this section of scripture “the sermon on the mount.” The title stuck.

Jesus begins with several statements, each starting with the word “blessed.” So “blessed” is a key word that needs to be understood in order to get the full impact of what Jesus is saying. So, I decided to spend the thirty minutes I allotted for today trying to understand what was meant by the word “blessed.” Two hours later this is where I’ve landed.

There are multiple Hebrew and Greek words we translate into some form of the English word “bless.” The concept of blessing is such a huge component of our faith I soon found it impossible to survey the entire concept and all of the original language words, so I limited myself to trying to understand the Greek word we translate as “blessed” in Matthew 5. That word is makarios, and its structure in a sentence is apparently as important as what the word itself means. (Don’t worry. I’m not going to bore you with the details, partially because I am not sure I understand it well enough to explain it!)

Some would say the word means “happy.” If it means happy, it is a happiness that comes from something other than circumstances, for one would not expect those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who hunger, or those who are persecuted to be happy. The definition I like best, hopefully because it is correct and not just because it fits with things I already believe, says that to be blessed is to be “marked by fullness from God.” It indicates a state of being that transcends one’s immediate circumstances. “To be blessed, is equivalent to having God’s kingdom within one’s heart.” This certainly fits well with the very first statement Jesus makes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3, NIV84)

There’s more work that needs to be done at some point to fully understand what the word “blessed” in Matthew 5 means, but for now it may be enough to know that it means a state of happiness and fulfillment within oneself that is not dependent upon present circumstances but relies instead upon the King establishing himself within us. After all, it is not possible for God’s kingdom to be established within us if he, himself is not also established there.

One in a Crowd or Disciple?

What makes me a disciple of Jesus? What separates me from the crowd? Just before Jesus begins what we have come to call The Sermon on the Mount we read that large crowds were following him. When he saw the crowds he went up on a mountainside and sat down, and “his disciples” came to him. There is a distinction made between “the crowd” and those who were “his disciples.”

Jesus was in the early stages of his public ministry. He was traveling the land teaching, preaching, and “healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:23-25) Imagine that – every disease being healed! Of course this was too exciting to keep quiet, so news spread and people came from everywhere bringing those who were sick, injured, and demon-possessed, and Jesus healed them! It’s no wonder that large crowds followed him.

In the crowd we would probably find those who sought some benefit from him. People who were struggling with issues beyond their control and ability to fix would turn to him to be healed. There would also be the curious, those who simply had to get a look at this worker of miracles. There were probably people there who were drawn to his words, finding them interesting and wanting to know more. A disciple would have been someone who was looking for something more than this.

A disciple is one who patterns his or herself after someone else. To follow Jesus as a disciple and not just another one in the crowd is to reject everything we think we know and embrace the totality of who he is, what he teaches, and the relationship he offers us as not just a pattern for living but as life itself! Ultimately a disciple is not interested in his own life but seeks the life that only Jesus can give. To gain that life a disciple is willing, even participates in, the tearing down of their life in order that Jesus can replace it with something new – not just something better.

Today when we take a look at the landscape of all those who follow him, there are some who follow as if they were members of the crowd. Some look for what value he might add to their lives. Others see him as a curiosity, and some follow him because of his celebrity status. An even smaller number follow him as disciples, people who throw off everything in order to embrace what he has to offer.

Am I disciple? The truth is sometimes I am, and sometimes I find myself standing in the crowd. But Jesus is always a disciple-maker, continually extending his grace to me when I have drifted back into the crowd inviting to come back to him on the mountainside.